Is it possible to define a generation in a single word?
“A lot of people are nervous. I have heard some people say that at 12:00 all the money will come out of the ATM. A lot of people don’t want to be in a plane at midnight. Still, I don’t think it will be so bad.”—the December 2, 1999 entry from the “Y2K Journal” I was asked to keep in my seventh-grade English class.
I hate the word “millennial.” By the time I was in my early teens, it already felt retro-futuristic—a leftover remnant of fruitless Y2K anxiety or, even worse, a reminder of Will Smith’s novelty album Willennium. I’m not sure what I would have chosen had I been given the opportunity to name my generation. I just know I wouldn’t have chosen “millennial.”
The media has been even less creative in deciding what to call the generation after us: I’ve heard some say “Generation Z,” some say “postmillennial,” some even combine those first two into the cringeworthy portmanteau “zillennial.” (Ugh.) But over the past year or so, the bright, optimistic cohort that makes up this demographic has proven that, no matter what we call them, they’re out to change the world. When it comes to gun laws, environmental activism, dismantling racism, and so much more, this as-yet-unnamed generation is leading the charge to a more humane world.
My mentee, Gia, and I have had some enlightening talks about the similarities and differences of our respective generations. Because of media stereotypes, I am used to the word “millennial” being used to generically connote “young person” (or, especially if it’s coming from someone of an older generation, “entitled, lazy young person”). My conversations with Gia, though, remind me that youth is temporary and that my generation has a more specific identity—and responsibility to those coming up behind us.
I asked Gia how she’d define her generation (and what she thought they should be called) and she told me she wasn’t yet sure. I then remembered myself at her age, seventeen, and it made me realize how few of the phenomena that we now associate with millennials even existed at that point. Smartphones didn’t exist yet, nor did social media as we understand it today. I’d argue that we had more trust in institutions—from the economy to the real estate market to Social Security—before 2008. The world we inherited and the concepts we are commonly associated with had not yet taken shape. It reminded me that, in defining generations, we must be patient. I’m in no rush to name the one coming up behind us. But, now that I think of it, Generation Girls Write Now has a nice ring to it.